Fourth week completed.

So I've made it through thus far. As each day passes, I'm becoming more and more comfortable in the school. There was some time where I just felt out of place and not "part of the community"... but it's slowly changing, and I'm VERY glad.

Yesterday was the first real "fun" day that I've had while at M-R. Not the kind of fun where kids are running around. But the teacher kind of fun where you just love being in the classroom, teaching your lesson. I taught about the moon phases yesterday... and we did a hands-on activity (that Ms. DT said was a great idea! :) ) where the kids hold a stryofoam ball on a stick and use a flashlight to see the moon's phases. We couldn't find a dark place at first, but then Ms. DT and I improvised and did it right in the large area in front of the gym. We turned off the lights, and bam! perfect. The students had a blast, I had a blast, my CT had a blast, and it felt so natural. This is what teaching should be like! I have my confirmation now.

As I'm getting more comfortable so my classroom management skills are getting more assertive. Thankfully, these kids are pretty well-behaved and have always listened to me, but I'm slowly learning how to work "it." I inner-laugh at a lot of the stuff I subconsciously do because it's so "mom." I'll give a look and J will know I mean business. Or I'll just walk by S who is busily chatting during literacy and he'll immediately remind himself that's not okay.

Then we move along to another type of student... A is a boy who is a "helpless handraiser." I told him he needed to remove "I need help" from his vocabulary. :P So he started getting creative. "Miss Chelsea, may I have your assistance?" I laughed and replied, "Well, at least that's better than 'I need help'." He's a sweet kid, but I'm finding out I have a bit more to learn about how to make my students independent. I'm conflicted, too. While independence is a good thing, our society has become TOO independent (which leads to higher cases of stress, suicide, anxiety, breakdowns, etc). I want my students to know that they should have someone they can rely on... they do NOT always have to rely on themselves. However, they do need to be independent enough to do things on their own. It's a balance that needs to be drawn. It's hard to implement in this school, though, since a lot of independence is greatly emphasized.

I have my MTEL #2 in 3 weeks, and I haven't even begun to study. Ugh. My plan is to do that today.

Since I finally bought another portable filing carrier thing, I went through all of my papers, lesson materials, worksheets, etc. and filed it according to subject and topic. Okay, you may laugh, but when I start teaching, I'm going to be bombarded with papers, and I want to know where I can find ideas for weather lessons or a Magic School Bus poster asap! :P

A few weeks ago, I did a bulletin board for our China unit... I'm quite proud because I had fun. :)

I was feeling kinda iffy this morning, so I've been drinking Airborne like crazy today. I will NOT get sick again in a month's period. That's ridiculous and unacceptable!! So, hello, Zinc and Vitamin C, you are my new kindred spirits. (We had a girls movie night last night... and watched the final installment of Anne of Green Gables. I blame all dramatizations on Anne Shirley. haha)

Well, onto more work and all that fun stuff.
Chelsea :)